EDUCATIONISTS AND INDUSTRIAL ISSUES: LIMITS TO THE MIXING OF POLITICS AND LAW

Litigation is not a much sought after means used by participants in Australian education to advance political aims for reasons such as earlier discouraging decisions of the courts, the limited access to them and the cost involved once in them. Such judgements on matters educational which have been delivered have not been innovative and, on the contrary, have tended to frustrate the political goals of those challenging existing provisions. These generalizations are supported by the decision in the recently decided University Staff case in which State judges chose to follow the High Court of Australia's decision in the Teachers' case of 1929 and its comparatively narrow view of “industry”, thus frustrating the political intentions sought by judicial intervention.